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Archiver > AZORES > 2001-08 > 0996646361


From: Doug da Rocha Holmes <>
Subject: [AZORES-L] Re: Family Information
Date: Tue, 31 Jul 2001 23:12:41 -0700
In-Reply-To: <20010801041348.27396.qmail@web13601.mail.yahoo.com>


At 09:13 PM 7/31/2001 , Joseph Almeida wrote:
>Currently there is a reference to providing
>information for a book that a list member is
>composing. The request is not uncommon, but is not
>necessary. I urge all listers to carefully consider
>such moves, especially the new people to genealogy.
>Very often the information you end up cheerfully and
>willingly provide to others, will not end up the way
>you hope it would. Many times it ends up being sold
>to others. If the records from the islands are being
>extracted properly you will never need to provide
>further information. Always BEWARE of such requests.
>Joe Almeida

Who Mr. Almeida is referring to is obviously me and my request today for people interested in ensuring their families are not omitted from my future Terceira and Pico village books.

But there are laws in the U.S. which protect people again such slanderous statements and that is precisely what this is. In a private message to me about a month or two ago, he stated he "knew" I took information from people and resold it. Now he says it publicly. Well, I am very happy he made this claim in public so as to put an end to this vicious and false assertion.

I don't know for certain who started it, but think it could have been one of his pals on this list named Chubb, who mentioned in April of this year that someone (not directly naming me, but everyone knew to whom was being referred) that this very thing had been done. I stated back then that such a thing is so amazingly ridiculous that the concept is almost funny. Who would be so stupid as to want to purchase "data" from anyone when that data is simply a list of names and dates?


Since nobody has ever requested such information from me, and I would never even attempt to sell information in that form, this above lie is purely fictional.

But to give the plaintiff a good chance to save face, I would very much like to know a specific name to whom I sold such information. Of course, since it never happened, that will be impossible to do.

However, if this claim is based on the fact people often send me information which I can then verify myself by looking at records available on microfilm or go down to the local county recorders office, etc, and I then turned around and sold that information to someone, then the above false statement is simply a twisting of the facts.

For example, if someone once asked me if I had any information about people named Manuel Silveira and Maria Isabel (just making these up for an example) who married in Ribeirinha, Pico in 1872 and had a son named Alexandre Silveira on 4 July 1877, etc., they supplied this information because it was necessary for me to know it in order to understand their request.

Now, if I later found some other person looking for this same couple married in 1872, I would likely have already put them in my database after the first request and to fill the order from this 2nd party, I would translate or transcribe the record of marriage in 1872. That is perfectly normal and must be obvious to anyone. I would have to obtain the document of baptism for Alexandre born in 1877 (available only from Pico) in order to sell that information to anyone. If I did that, there is no reason in the world why I should be prevented from doing that if a person was interested in such a document.

So maybe this false accusation is based on such a thing as that. If so, I must ask if anyone thinks that because any particular ancestors are yours, does that mean they are not the ancestors of another person? Can you have a lock on your own ancestors? Of course not. It is almost so pitifully simple that it shouldn't be necessary to spend the few seconds to write it.

But back to Mr. Almeida and any of his friends who think like him. You can have any opinions you want about me or anyone else in the world. Freedom of thought is a basic concept and privilege in America. But freedom to slander and libel is NOT your right. You are trying to very hard, along with Chubb, to do everything possible to discredit me and thwart my genealogical efforts. Not only are these done in very poor taste, but you are fighting the wrong person. I don't lay down and just die like you might wish. When someone attacks me in private, I have the option to ignore them. But when attacked in public, when genealogy is my sole source of income, you are jeopardizing the welfare of my wife, my little son and myself.

If I were becoming rich, as much as I would like that, I wouldn't hesitate to take you to court. But I can't afford a spare dime to fight you that way. I can only do it by this public reply and appeal to the basic goodness and common sense of most on this list and most any other people who are Portuguese and any other nationalities.

You and your like are shameful examples of Portuguese and you don't deserve a moment more of my time.

My regards to my many friends on this list who know me as an honest and very skillful genealogist.

Sincerely,

Doug

PS - interestingly, when such attacks on me occur, often my business starts to "boom" (greatly expand). So anyone wanting to publicly fight me like this is always welcome to try. Maybe I can finally earn a decent living from genealogy, instead of just scraping by from month to month!!

Doug da Rocha Holmes www.dholmes.com/rocha2.html
Professional Genealogist (Açores & Madeira)
Specializing in the islands of Terceira & Pico
1035 Starbrook Drive
Galt, California 95632 USA

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